Peter Scully

Peter Gerard Scully (born 13 January 1963) is an Australian sex offender imprisoned for life in the Philippines after being convicted of one count of human trafficking and five counts of rape by sexual assault of children.[2] Scully was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2018. In November 2022, he received a second conviction and was sentenced to an additional 129 years in prison.

Peter Scully
Mugshot of Scully in 2015
(The placard in the image has his middle name misspelled as "Gerald".)
Born
Peter Gerard Scully[1]

(1963-01-13) 13 January 1963
Melbourne, Australia
Height1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Criminal statusConvicted
Children2
Criminal chargeHuman trafficking, rape, murder
PenaltyLife sentence
Details
Victims75
CountryPhilippines
Date apprehended
20 February 2015
Imprisoned atCagayan de Oro city jail, Philippines

Criminal activities

Peter Scully lived in the suburb of Narre Warren in Melbourne with his wife and two children prior to fleeing to Manila in the Philippines in 2011,[1][3] before he could be charged with his involvement in a property scheme that cost investors over A$2.68 million.[1] According to his own statement, he was sexually abused by a priest in Victoria when he grew up.[3] Prior to leaving Melbourne, he operated an unlicensed online escort service which offered his Filipina girlfriend as a sex worker. An investigation by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission from 2009 found that Scully was involved in 117 fraud and deception offenses relating to real estate scams.[1]

Sexual abuse of children

From the island of Mindanao, Scully is alleged to have built up a lucrative international child sexual abuse ring that offered pay-per-view video streams of children being sexually abused and tortured on the dark web. Among the victims who had their ordeals recorded and sold over the Internet was a five-year-old who was raped and tortured by Scully and two female accomplices.[4]

Victims were procured by Scully with promises to impoverished parents of work or education, or were solicited by his two Filipina girlfriends, Carme Ann Alvarez and Liezyl Margallo Castaña,[3] and other female acquaintances such as Maria Dorothea Chi y Chia.[5] Both Alvarez and Margallo also abused children in Scully's videos.

In 2016, prosecutors alleged that Scully and a girlfriend coaxed two teenage girls to come to Scully's house with the promise of food.[3] Scully was alleged to have given the girls alcohol and forced them to perform sex acts between them, a scene the photographer filmed.[3] The prosecutor alleged that when the girls tried to escape, Scully forced them to dig graves in the basement of the house and threatened that he would bury them there.[3] After five days, the girls were released by Alvarez, who began feeling remorse after coming home to see the two in pet collars and reported what had happened.[3]

Dark web

Scully operated a secret dark web child sexual abuse website known as "No limits fun" ("NLF").[3] The most notorious video Scully produced was Daisy's Destruction, which he sold on his site to clients for up to $10,000.[3] It features the torture and rape of three girls by Scully and two Filipina women.[6] Urged on by Scully, some of the most severe physical abuse was carried out on the children by one of his girlfriends, then 19-year-old Liezyl Margallo, who was formerly trafficked as a child.[7][8]

Prior to the video gaining attention by the general public, Scully broadcast Daisy's Destruction privately on a pay-per-view basis.[9] Due to the content, it quickly garnered attention by law enforcement and media. The Dutch National Child Exploitation Team was the first to open an investigation with the goal of locating the victims. Subsequently, an international manhunt for those responsible for the video's production was launched. Scully was tracked to Malaybalay City in the Philippines and arrested on 20 February 2015. Investigators had six warrants for his arrest,[8] all relating to the abduction and sexual abuse of two cousins.[3] While they searched for Scully in the Philippines, investigators tracked down the three primary victims in Daisy's Destruction. Liza (victim 1) was found to be alive as was Daisy (victim 2) who had lasting physical injuries from her severe mistreatment. According to Margallo, Scully recorded himself in a video with Cindy (victim 3), in which he raped and tortured her, then made her dig her own grave before strangling her with a rope.[8]

Among those who acquired and publicized the Daisy's Destruction video was one of the biggest-ever purveyors of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), Scully's fellow Australian Matthew David Graham, better known by his online pseudonym Lux. Apprehended at age 22, Graham ran a series of "hurtcore" child sexual abuse sites.[10][11] Graham claimed that he had published the video on his own website "in the name of freedom".[9] Years later in 2021, the Daisy's Destruction video regained infamy after it was found in Josh Duggar's possession.[12][13]

Criminal charges

Scully faced a total of 75 charges[3] and, according to German television news channel n-tv, was alleged to have sexually abused 75 children.[14] He was on trial with others who assisted in the production of his pornography, including four men: German Christian Rouche, Filipinos Alexander Lao and Althea Chia, and Brazilian Haniel Caetano de Oliveira.[4][15][16] Margaret Akullo, then-Project Coordinator for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and an expert on child abuse investigations,[17] described the case as "horrific" and the worst she had ever heard of. His crimes were deemed so severe that some prosecutors supported the reintroduction of the death penalty as punishment for Scully,[3] despite capital punishment being abolished in the Philippines since 2006.[18]

In a March 2015 interview with Tara Brown on 60 Minutes, Scully said that he was writing a tell-all journal in prison where he would reflect on his motivations for raping young children.[19]

In October 2015, a fire severely damaged the evidence room containing Scully's computer logs and videos, destroying key evidence.[20] Some believe Scully may have bribed a local police officer.[21][22] On 13 June 2018, Scully and his girlfriend Alvarez were sentenced to life in prison.[23] Judge Jose Escobido also ordered Scully and Alvarez to pay 5 million PHP (almost 87,000 USD) to the victims.[24]

Both Scully and his sister complained about the conditions in the jail Scully is held in.[3]

In November 2022, he received a second conviction and was sentenced to an additional 129 years in prison.[25] Margallo was sentenced to 126 years, and two accomplices, Alexander Lao and Maria Dorothea Chia, were given a 9-year sentence each.[26] In total, there have been 60 cases filed against Scully.[24]

See also

References
  1. Mills, Tammy; Vedelago, Chris; Murdoch, Lindsay (6 March 2015). "Alleged paedophile Peter Gerard Scully fled a sordid past in Melbourne". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 19 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  2. "Australian Peter Scully given life sentence for human trafficking, rape in Philippines, reports say". ABC News (Australia). 14 June 2018. Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  3. Murdoch, Lindsay (20 September 2016). "Death penalty call for accused Australian child sex predator Peter Scully in Philippines". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 3 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  4. Sutton, Candace (23 September 2016). "Australian child molester Peter Scully faces death penalty in Philippines". news.com.au. Archived from the original on 6 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  5. Mendoza, Greanne (17 February 2017). "Another suspect linked to Australian sex fiend arrested". ABS-CBN News. Archived from the original on 29 June 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  6. Brown, Tara (16 March 2015). "Catching a monster: The global manhunt for alleged paedophile Peter Gerard Scully". 9news.com.au. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  7. Alipon, Joworski; Andrade, Angelo (27 January 2017). "Filipina behind brutal 'Daisy' sex videos arrested". ABS-CBN News. Archived from the original on 25 June 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  8. Brown, Tara (2015). "Catching a Monster". 60 Minutes (published 27 August 2020). Nine News. Archived from the original on 16 November 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2023 – via YouTube.
  9. Daly, Max (19 February 2018). "Inside the Repulsive World of 'Hurtcore', the Worst Crimes Imaginable". Vice. Archived from the original on 31 December 2019. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  10. Johnston, Chris (14 May 2016). "Lux captured: The simple error that brought down the world's worst hurtcore paedophile". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 31 August 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  11. Dunn, Matthew (20 February 2016). "FBI describe dark net paedophile kingpin as one of the most prolific child sex offenders ever". news.com.au. Archived from the original on 15 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  12. Klasfeld, Adam (20 August 2021). "Josh Duggar Tries to Dismiss Child Porn Charges on Grounds That Trump's Homeland Security Leaders Were Unlawfully Appointed". Law & Crime.
  13. Klasfeld, Adam (22 June 2021). "Feds Say They Found a Toddler Rape Video on Josh Duggar's Computer. Here's the 'Horrendous' Story of the 'World's Worst Pedophile' Who Made It". Law & Crime.
  14. NACHRICHTEN, n-tv. "Philippinen wollen Todesstrafe - vor allem für Einen". n-tv.de (in German). Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  15. Reformina, Ina (6 March 2015). "Australian behind 'Daisy' sex videos charged". ABS-CBN News. Archived from the original on 15 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  16. Rocha, Alex; Idaló, Eduardo (21 December 2015). "Médico de Uberaba admite pedofilia e se diz doente, segundo PF". g1.globo.com (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 3 August 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  17. Regional Training Workshop on Responding to Violence against Children in Contact with the Justice System Archived 10 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine. 3–5 November 2014 conference at United Nations Conference Center, Bangkok, Thailand.
  18. Hincks, Joseph (7 March 2017). "Philippine House Votes to Reimpose the Death Penalty". Time.
  19. Partland, Grace Cantal-Albasin, Lindsay Murdoch and Lily (15 March 2015). "Peter Gerard Scully interview reveals plans to tell all". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 December 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. Murdoch, Lindsay (31 January 2017). "Alleged child abuser Peter Scully 'may still be masterminding porn network'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 26 June 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  21. Walker, Timothy (9 October 2015). "Australian child abuser Peter Scully could walk free in light of new evidence". Philippines Lifestyle News. CWCMedia. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  22. Cullen, Shay (August 2015). "Hungry for justice: Harsh realities of child abuse". Rappler. Archived from the original on 5 January 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  23. Sutton, Candance (14 June 2018). "Infamous pedophile smiles as he gets life in prison". New York Post. Archived from the original on 17 February 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  24. "Australian pedophile Peter Scully gets jail sentence of 129 years more". RAPPLER. 8 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  25. "Australian man jailed for 129 years in child sexual abuse case in Philippines". the Guardian. Agence France-Presse. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  26. "Australian, cohorts convicted of trafficking". Manila Bulletin. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
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